Analysis of cooperative driving strategies at road network level with macroscopic fundamental diagram

Cooperative driving, especially the passing order, is the critical link to improve the traffic effi-ciency of the road network by using automated vehicles (AVs). However, most studies have only considered the performance of the passing order at the isolated intersection and have not yet investigated its impact on the road network. In this paper, we will focus on the performance of the passing orders derived from different cooperative driving strategies on the network traffic through a series of simulation experiments. Meanwhile, we will compare the impacts of the passing order at intersections and the car-following gap in straight links on the network traffic efficiency. The experiments results show that the passing order has a dominant impact on the network traffic efficiency, and a better order can significantly raise the curve of the macroscopic fundamental diagram (MFD); due to the inevitable conflicts in the two-dimensional traffic, the choice of the car-following gap within a reasonable range has a relatively small improvement on the network traffic efficiency. The findings in this paper have instructive significance for the rising research on network-wide cooperative driving and provide a systematical perspective for network traffic control.

Automated summary

This paper investigates the impact of different cooperative driving strategies on network traffic through simulation experiments, focusing on the passing order. It finds that the passing order has a dominant impact on network traffic efficiency, while the car-following gap has a relatively small influence. These findings provide guidance for research on network-wide cooperative driving and network traffic control.